Systems and methods for integrating outsourcers

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for integrating outsourcers are provided. In this regard, a representative method includes: receiving information corresponding to resources of a first contact center; and correlating the information with other information in order to improve integration of resources of the first contact center with resources of one or more other contact centers.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a utility application that claims the benefit of andpriority to U.S. provisional applications having Ser. Nos. 60/816,785and 60/817,680, which were filed on Jun. 27, 2006 and Jun. 30, 2006,respectively, and which are incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention is generally related to integration of outsourcedcontact center resources.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Resource allocation and planning, including the generation of schedulesfor employees, is a complex problem for enterprises. Telephone callcenter resource allocation and scheduling is an example of a problemwith a large number of variables. Variables include contact volume at aparticular time of day, available staff, skills of various staffmembers, call type (e.g., new order call and customer service call), andnumber of call queues, where a call queue may be assigned a particularcall type. A basic goal of call center scheduling is to minimize thecost of agents available to answer calls while maximizing service.

Traditionally, call center scheduling is performed by forecastingincoming contact volumes and estimating average talk times for each timeperiod based on past history and other measures. These values are thencorrelated to produce a schedule. However, due to the number ofvariables that may affect the suitability of a schedule, many schedulesneed to be evaluated.

Recently, call centers have evolved into “contact centers” in which theagent's contact with the customer can be through many contact media. Forexample, a multi-contact center may handle telephone, email, webcallback, web chat, fax, and voice over internet protocol. Therefore, inaddition to variation in the types of calls (e.g., service call, ordercall), modern contact centers have the complication of variation incontact media. The variation in contact media adds complexity to theagent scheduling process. Additional complexity results when multiplegeographically distributed contact center sites are involved.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods for integrating outsourcers are provided. In thisregard, a representative method includes: receiving informationcorresponding to resources of a first contact center; and correlatingthe information with other information in order to improve integrationof resources of the first contact center with resources of one or moreother contact centers.

Another embodiment of such a method comprises: receiving informationcorresponding to resources of a first contact center that sharescontacts with a second contact center, the information being configuredas an XML file; importing the information into a database, the databasebeing accessible to a workforce manager application associated with thesecond contact center that is operative to retrieve information storedin the database; correlating the resources contained in the XML filewith resources that are to be used at the second contact center; andallocating resources of the second contact center using the informationfrom the database, wherein the allocating is based, at least in part, ona correlation between the resources of the first contact center and thesecond contact center.

An exemplary embodiment of a system for integrating outsourcerscomprises an integration system operative to receive informationcorresponding to resources of a first contact center, the integrationsystem being further operative to correlate the received informationwith other information in order to improve integration of resources ofthe first contact center with resources of one or more other contactcenters.

Other systems, methods, features and/or advantages of the presentinvention will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art uponexamination of the following drawings and detailed description. It isintended that all such additional systems, methods, features and/oradvantages be included within this description and protected by theaccompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the invention can be better understood with reference tothe following drawings. The components in the drawings are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the present invention. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of asystem for integrating outsourcers.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating functionality (or method steps) thatcan be performed by an embodiment of a system for integratingoutsourcers.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating another exemplary embodimentof a system for integrating outsourcers.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating functionality (or method steps) thatcan be performed by an embodiment of a remote contact center.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a file that can beexported by a remote contact center.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a representative screen that can beused to perform activity mapping.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a representative dialog box that can beused in importing of outsourcer schedules.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a representative screen associated witha staffing profile.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating functionality (or method steps) thatcan be performed by an embodiment of a system for integratingoutsourcers.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a computer that can be used toimplement an embodiment of a system for integrating outsourcers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods for integrating outsourcers are provided. In thisregard, current workforce optimization (WFO) solutions can potentiallyprovide planning, forecasting, scheduling, and tracking and performanceanalysis services for customers who have full control over contactcenter work load as well as resources (e.g., agents) available to handlethis work load. The typical implementation of such a solution is acentralized system with a single database deployed on premises. However,this approach is changing due to outsourcing.

For contact centers that share contacts across their own sites andoutsourced sites through percent allocation or virtual routing,outsourcing of contact center activities (e.g., scheduling of agents andagent handling of contacts) tends to distribute control from a single(“local”) contact center to multiple other (“remote”) contact centers.As control over these activities is divested from the local contactcenter, the ability of the local contact center to plan efficient agentstaffing and scheduling can be degraded.

Currently, in order to compensate for lack of information and controlinvolving work resources available at remote contact centers, a customermay attempt to model the resources available at the remote sites withinthe customer's system. However, such a customer typically does not havefull information about the resources available (e.g., skills of theagents at the remote sites) or schedules, thereby reducing the accuracyof planning.

In order to alleviate these difficulties, at least some embodiments ofthe systems for integrating outsourcers involve the use of a distributedset of servers. That is, instead of operating only a centralizeddatabase and application server at the local site, in some embodiments,at least one server is deployed at each of the remote (“outsourcer”)sites, in addition to a server being deployed at the local site. Theservers are used to implement workforce manager applications that areused to generate agent schedules for staffing the respective contactcenters. Additionally, the servers located at the remote sites are usedto export information relating to their scheduled agents, with theinformation being imported by the server of the local site. The localserver then uses the information for facilitating efficient planning foruse of the local contact center resources and/or tracking performance ofthe remote contact center resources.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating anexemplary embodiment of a system for integrating outsourcers. In thisregard, system 100 incorporates a local contact center 102. The localcontact center has access to various resources including a staff ofagents that is used to interact with customers who communicate with thelocal contact center. It should be noted that interactions between anagent and a customer can be facilitated through the use of variousmedia. By way of example, interactions can take place via telephone(such as via telephone 104), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), email(such as via workstation 105) and chat, for example, with suchcommunication taking place via network 104.

System 100 also includes remote contact centers (“outsourcers”) 106 and108, each of which can be geographically distributed with respect tolocal contact center 102. Each of these contact centers is able tocommunicate information to the local contact center and/or receiveinformation from the local contact center via the network. Inparticular, communication of information between the remote contactcenters and the local contact center can enable various forms ofintegration, e.g., scheduling and tracking, of resources. By way ofexample, such communication can enable the local contact center toeffectively utilize its staff of agents as will be described in detailbelow. It should be noted that although two remote contact centers aredepicted in FIG. 1, various other numbers of such contact centers can beprovided in other embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating functionality (or method steps) thatcan be performed by an embodiment of a system for integratingoutsourcers, such as the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1. In this regard,the functionality may be construed as beginning at block 210, in whichinformation corresponding to a remote contact center is received. Insome embodiments, this information can include skills of agents andschedules for those agents.

In block 212, the information received from the remote contact center iscorrelated with other information in order to improve integration ofresources of the remote contact center, such as with resources of one ormore other contact centers. By way of example, correlating informationfrom multiple contact centers enables schedules of the resources of themultiple contact centers to be integrated so that efficient staffing canbe achieved. In some embodiments, such integration can additionally oralternatively include the allocation of contacts among contact centers,and the tracking of staffing and/or service levels provided byoutsourcers. Clearly, various other integrations are possible in whichinformation associated with one or more contact centers is correlatedwith information associated with one or more other contact centers.

As mentioned before, information from a contact center can be exportedto another system for analysis. Due to potential variations in the typeand/or format of the information being exported, such information mayneed to be filtered, e.g., mapped to corresponding data fields of theimporting system, in order to ensure that the exported information canbe used by the importing system.

In those embodiments in which the exporting system is compatible (e.g.,identical) with the importing system, correlation of information betweenthe systems can be performed automatically. In other embodiments, suchcorrelation may be performed manually or in a semi-automated manner, aswill be described in greater detail later.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating another exemplary embodimentof a system for integrating outsourcers. In particular, system 300incorporates a local contact center 302. The local contact center hasaccess to various resources including a staff of agents that is used tointeract with customers who communicate with the local contact center.Local contact center 302 includes a workforce management system 303 thatincludes an integration system 304, a database 306 and a schedulingsystem 308. Notably, the workforce management system can be implementedby one or more applications running on one or more servers, for example.

System 300 also includes remote contact centers 310 and 312, each ofwhich typically is geographically distributed with respect to localcontact center 302. Each of the remote contact centers is able tocommunicate information to the local contact center and/or receiveinformation from the local contact center via network 314. Notably, eachof the remote contact centers has access to various resources includinga staff of agents that is used to interact with customers. In someembodiments, contacts are distributed among the local and remote contactcenters via percent allocation or virtual routing, for example.

Notably, each of the remote contact centers and the local contact centertypically is responsible for staffing and scheduling of its respectivestaff of agents. In this regard, each of the remote contact centerstypically schedules its staff based on general contact-handlingrequirements that are communicated to the remote contact center throughan outsourcing agreement with the local contact center in the form offorecasted requirements. In contrast, the local contact center uses morespecific information obtained from the remote contact centers in orderto facilitate staffing and scheduling of its agents as will be describedin greater detail below.

In operation, workforce management system 303 is able to communicateforecasted requirements, such as agent requirements, workload to behandled and specific schedules to be staffed, to one or more of theremote contact centers. It should be noted that, in some embodiments,the remote contact centers need not be provided with forecastedrequirements. Regardless, the remote contact centers generate workschedules for their agents, such as by using other potentially disparateworkforce management systems (e.g., remote contact center 310 usesworkforce management system 316). Once generated, information related tothe generated schedules is communicated to the local contact center viathe network, such as by each of the remote contact centers exporting afile containing the information. By way of example, in the embodiment ofFIG. 3, remote contact center 310 communicates export file 320 to theintegration system 304 of local contact center 302.

In this regard, FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating functionality (ormethod steps) that can be performed by an embodiment of a remote contactcenter. As shown in FIG. 4, the functionality may be construed asbeginning at block 410, in which schedules for agents of the remotecontact center are generated. In block 412, information related to theschedules is exported.

In some embodiments, a schedule export adapter of a workforce managementsystem of the remote contact center is used to prepare and exportinformation related to the schedules. In particular, the information caninclude one or more of the following: a list of agents, skills of theagents, and generated work schedules for the agents. The informationthen can be communicated, such as in a selected file format, to thelocal contact center via the network.

In some embodiments, a schedule export adapter includes the followingconfiguration items: location of export file (e.g., an edit box canspecify the location of the export file); an agent filter (e.g., a dropdown menu item that contains a list) used to determine which agentschedules are to be exported; and a timer setting (e.g., a box used tospecify how often a file should be exported (for example, every 30minutes).

Once configured, the schedule export adapter can place a file containingthe agents, skills and schedules in the specified location. Notably, theschedules contain the activities that each agent is scheduled toperform.

It should be noted that various file types and arrangements of data canbe used to provide the information to the local contact center. In thisregard, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a file, inthis case an XML file, that can be exported by a workforce managementsystem of a remote contact center and which includes such information.

As shown in FIG. 5, the file includes an employee list (<EmployeeList>)that is delineated by organization (<OrganizationName>). Within eachorganization is a list of agents. Included with each agent (<Employee>)is information corresponding to the agent's name (<FirstName>,<LastName>, and <MiddleInitial>), as well as additional information.This additional information (<AdditionalInfo>) includes a work schedule(<EmployeeSchedule>) and skills of the agent (<SkillAssignment>).

An integration system of the local contact center includes a scheduleimport adapter that is used to extract information from the filesexported from the remote contact centers. An embodiment of such anadapter can include: the location of the import file (e.g., an edit boxto specify the location of a file that was exported); activity and skillmaps; and the name of the organization in which schedules associatedwith the export file should be placed on the local system.

In this regard, FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a representative screenthat can be used to perform activity mapping. Specifically, such ascreen can be used to specify the name of an activity on the workforcemanagement system of the local contact center that corresponds to anactivity listed in the exported file. This may be necessary as theremote contact center may use different names for their activities thanthose used by the local contact center. By way of example, screen 600incorporates a Name field 610 that lists names of activities from theexported file. A Mapped Activity field 612 is used to designatecorrespondence between activities from the exported file and activitynames used by the local contact center. By way of example, field 610includes an activity 614 entitled “Personal Day” that is mapped to acorresponding mapped activity 616 entitled “CKA.” Thus, each instance ofa Personal Day activity discovered in the exported file will berecognized as a CKA activity by the local contact center for schedulingpurposes.

In order to use the file exported by a remote contact center, someembodiments incorporate the use of a dialog box associated with theworkforce management system. In this regard, FIG. 7 is a diagramillustrating a representative dialog box 700 that can be used inimporting of such information.

As shown in FIG. 7, a user designates an organization from whichinformation is to be imported. This is accomplished by entering anorganization name in field 710. A date range also is entered in thefields 712 and 714, with the range designating a scheduling period ofinterest.

Responsive to actuating the import actuator 716, the schedule importadapter parses the imported file and creates staffing profiles. Thesestaffing profiles include agent skills and schedules. FIG. 8 is adiagram illustrating a representative screen 800 associated with astaffing profile. As shown in FIG. 8, schedules of four agents of aremote contact center (Outsourcers 1-4) are shown.

Generally, this screen displays all schedules of agents and staffingprofiles in a Gantt style chart. Different colors represent differentactivities that an agent or staffing profile should perform.Additionally, statistics such as service level or staffing are displayedat the top of the screen.

Since each of the agents of the remote contact center has an establishedschedule and corresponding skills, scheduling of agents of the localcontact center can be generated using this knowledge. That is, thestaffing profiles are considered as counting towards service levels whenscheduling or simulating by the local contact center. Thus, moreeffective scheduling of the local contact center agents can beaccomplished.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the schedules for theagents of the remote contact centers are locked. That is, regardless ofthe schedules determined for the agents of the local contact center, theschedules of the agents of the remote contact center are not altered.However, in some embodiments, the schedules of the agents of the remotecontact centers can be unlocked, thus allowing scheduling determinationsfrom the local contact center to influence the schedules of the remotecontact center agents.

More information on various aspects of multi-site contact centers can befound, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/385,499,filed on Mar. 21, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating functionality (or method steps) thatcan be performed by an embodiment of a system for integratingoutsourcers, such as the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1. In this regard,the functionality may be construed as beginning at block 910, in whichinformation is received. Specifically, the information corresponds towork schedules and skills of agents of a remote contact center. In someembodiments, contacts that are to be serviced by the remote contactcenter agents can be allocated among additional contact centers such asamong other remote contact centers and/or a local contact center. Inthis regard, “contacts” denote the communications involved infacilitating interactions between agents and customers. Notably,information corresponding to various skills of the contact centeragents, such as information corresponding to skills possessed, skillpriority and skill proficiency, can be provided.

In block 912, the skills communicated by the information are correlatedwith skills that are to be used for scheduling agents of at least oneother contact center, e.g., another remote contact center and/or a localcontact center. In some embodiments, such as when the scheduling systemused to provide the skills information is compatible (e.g., identical)with the scheduling system being used to perform the correlating,correlation of information can be performed automatically. In otherembodiments, such correlation may be performed manually or in asemi-automated manner.

In block, 914, work schedules for the agents of the at least one othercontact center are generated. Specifically, the work schedules arebased, at least in part, on a correlation between the skills of theagents of the remote contact center and of the at least one othercontact center, and an evaluation of the work schedules of the agents ofthe remote contact center.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a computer 1000 that can be used toimplement an embodiment of a system for scheduling contact centeragents. It should be noted that the computer 1000 could be located in alocal contact center or at a location connected to the local contactcenter via a communication network. Generally, the computer includes aprocessing device 1002, memory 1004, and input/output device 1006 thatintercommunicate via local interface 1008. The local interface caninclude, for example, but is not limited to one or more buses or otherwired or wireless connections. The local interface may have additionalelements, which are omitted for simplicity, such as controllers, buffers(caches), drivers, repeaters, and receivers to enable communications.Further, the local interface may include address, control, and/or dataconnections to enable appropriate communications among theaforementioned components.

The processing device can be a hardware device for executing software,particularly software stored in memory. The processing device can be acustom made or commercially available processor, a central processingunit (CPU) or an auxiliary processor among several processors, asemiconductor-based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chipset), a macroprocessor, or generally any device for executing softwareinstructions.

The memory can include any one or combination of volatile memoryelements (e.g., random access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM,etc.)) and nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape,CDROM, etc.). Moreover, the memory may incorporate electronic, magnetic,optical, and/or other types of storage media. Note that the memory (aswell as various other components) can have a distributed architecture,where various components are situated remote from one another, but canbe accessed by the processing device. Additionally, the memory caninclude an operating system 1010, as well as instructions associatedwith various subsystems, such as a forecasting system 1012, which can beused to provide forecasted requirements, a scheduling system 1014, whichcan be used to generate agent schedules, and an integration system 1016,which can be used to receive information regarding agents of a remotecontact center.

It should be noted that a system component embodied as software may alsobe construed as a source program, executable program (object code),script, or any other entity comprising a set of instructions to beperformed. When constructed as a source program, the program istranslated via a compiler, assembler, interpreter, or the like, whichmay or may not be included within the memory, so as to operate properlyin connection with the operating system.

When the computer is in operation, the processing device is configuredto execute software stored within the memory, to communicate data to andfrom the memory, and to generally control operations of the systempursuant to the software. Software in memory, in whole or in part, isread by the processing device, perhaps buffered, and then executed.

It should be noted that the flowcharts included herein show thearchitecture, functionality and/or operation of implementations that maybe configured using software. In this regard, each block can beinterpreted to represent a module, segment, or portion of code, whichcomprises one or more executable instructions for implementing thespecified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in somealternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occurout of the order. For example, two blocks shown in succession may infact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimesbe executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionalityinvolved.

It should be noted that any of the executable instructions, such asthose depicted functionally in the accompanying flowcharts, can beembodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connectionwith an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as acomputer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system thatcan fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In the context ofthis document, a “computer-readable medium” can be any means that cancontain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for useby or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice. The computer readable medium can be, for example but not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus, or device. More specific examples (anonexhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium could include anelectrical connection (electronic) having one or more wires, a portablecomputer diskette (magnetic), a random access memory (RAM) (electronic),a read-only memory (ROM) (electronic), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) (electronic), an optical fiber(optical), and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CDROM)(optical). In addition, the scope of the certain embodiments of thisdisclosure can include embodying the functionality described in logicembodied in hardware or software-configured media.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments are merelypossible examples of implementations. Many variations and modificationsmay be made to the above-described embodiments. By way of example,although several embodiments are described herein that involve the useof systems performing correlation of information at least some of whichis associated with agents that are considered local to that system.However, such correlation can be provided even if such local agents arenot involved. That is, in some embodiments, systems can correlateinformation associated with agents of remote contact centers only. Allsuch modifications and variations are intended to be included hereinwithin the scope of this disclosure.

1. A method for integrating outsourcers comprising: generating aforecast requirement related to a volume of contacts to be handled by afirst contact center; transferring the forecast requirement from asecond contact center to the first contact center, wherein the firstcontact center generates work schedules for resources of the firstcontact center based on the forecast requirement and skills of theresources of the first contact center; receiving informationcorresponding to the resources of the first contact center that sharescontacts with the second contact center, wherein the informationcomprises the work schedules and the skills of the resources of thefirst contact center, and wherein the work schedules compriseactivities; importing the information into a database, the databasebeing accessible to a workforce manager application associated with thesecond contact center that is operative to retrieve information storedin the database; correlating the skills contained in the informationwith skills that are to be used for scheduling resources of the secondcontact center; correlating the activities contained in the informationwith activities that are to be used for scheduling the resources of thesecond contact center; and allocating the resources of the secondcontact center using the information from the database, wherein theallocating is based, at least in part, on a correlation between theskills of the resources of the first contact center and the secondcontact center, a correlation between the activities of the resources ofthe first contact center and the second contact center, and anevaluation of the work schedules of the resources of the first contactcenter.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating contactsbetween the first contact center and the second contact center, whereinat least some of the contacts are communicated via Internet protocol(IP) packets.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein: the resources includeagents; and allocating comprises determining work schedules of theagents of the second contact center.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereindetermining the work schedules of the agents of the second contactcenter comprises evaluating potential schedules for the agents of thesecond contact center based on service level goals computed usingcontributions of the agents of the first contact center.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein, in receiving information, the information isreceived from a workforce manager application, associated with the firstcontact center, of a disparate type with respect to the workforcemanager application associated with the second contact center.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the first contact center is a remote contactcenter and the second contact center is a local contact center.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the information received is configured as anXML file.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating steps areperformed in order to improve integration of the resources of the firstcontact center with the resources of the second contact center.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the work schedules of the resources of thefirst contact center are locked such that the work schedules of theresources of the first contact center are not changed responsive toallocating the resources of the second contact center.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the skills contained in the information comprise askill priority and a skill proficiency for each skill of each resourceof the first contact center.
 11. A system for integrating outsourcerscomprising: a processing device configured to execute a forecastingsystem operative to generate a forecast requirement related to a volumeof contacts to be handled by a first contact center and transfer theforecast requirement from a second contact center to the first contactcenter, wherein the first contact center generates work schedules forresources of the first contact center based on the forecast requirementand skills of the resources of the first contact center; the processingdevice configured to execute an integration system operative to receiveinformation corresponding to the resources of the first contact centerthat shares contacts with the second contact center, wherein theinformation comprises the work schedules and the skills of the resourcesof the first contact center, and wherein the work schedules compriseactivities; a database operative to store the information, the databasebeing accessible to a workforce manager application associated with thesecond contact center that is operative to retrieve information storedin the database; the processing device configured to execute theintegration system operative to correlate the skills contained in theinformation with skills that are to be used for scheduling resources ofthe second contact center, and correlate the activities contained in theinformation with activities that are to be used for scheduling theresources of the second contact center; and the processing deviceconfigured to execute a scheduling system operative to communicate withthe integration system and to allocate the resources of the secondcontact center using the information from the database, wherein theallocation is based, at least in part, on a correlation between theskills of the resources of the first contact center and the secondcontact center, a correlation between the activities of the resources ofthe first contact center and the second contact center, and anevaluation of the work schedules of the resources of the first contactcenter.
 12. The system of claim 11, further comprising the schedulingsystem operative to allocate contacts between the first contact centerand the second contact center, wherein at least some of the contacts arecommunicated via Internet protocol (IP) packets.
 13. The system of claim11, wherein: the resources include agents; and the scheduling system, toallocate the resources of the second contact center, determines workschedules of the agents of the second contact center.
 14. The system ofclaim 13, wherein the scheduling system determines the work schedules ofthe agents of the second contact center by evaluating potentialschedules for the agents of the second contact center based on servicelevel goals computed using contributions of the agents of the firstcontact center.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the integrationsystem receives the information from a workforce manager applicationassociated with the first contact center, of a disparate type withrespect to the workforce manager application associated with the secondcontact center.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the first contactcenter is a remote contact center and the second contact center is alocal contact center.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein theintegration system receives the information configured as an XML file.18. The system of claim 11, wherein the integration system correlatesthe skills and the activities contained in the information with theskills and the activities that are to be used for scheduling theresources of the second contact center in order to improve integrationof the resources of the first contact center with the resources of thesecond contact center.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the workschedules of the resources of the first contact center are locked suchthat the work schedules of the resources of the first contact center arenot changed responsive to the allocation of the resources of the secondcontact center by the scheduling system.
 20. The system of claim 11,wherein the skills contained in the information comprise a skillpriority and a skill proficiency for each skill of each resource of thefirst contact center.